Matthew Watkins

Matthew Watkins
is the breaking news editor for the Tribune. Before becoming an editor, he wrote about higher education and the business of college sports for the Tribune. Previously, he has covered local government at The Dallas Morning News and The Eagle in Bryan-College Station. A Texas native, Matthew grew up in Austin and has lived in Houston, Dallas and Bryan. He earned his bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University in 2008.

Recent Contributions

After Hurricane Harvey led to cancelling a week of classes, the University of Houston re-opened Tuesday with a faculty and student body filled with people facing a wide array of challenges related to the storm.

Despite Hurricane Harvey, class has started at many universities across Texas. But it's been hard — and in some cases impossible — for students from storm-ravaged areas to return to normal life on campus.

After Texas A&M canceled white nationalist Preston Wiginton's Sept. 11 campus rally, Wiginton said Tuesday that he was pondering a march on a public street that passes through the College Station campus.

A College Station white nationalist is planning a rally on the campus of Texas A&M University that will feature the infamous self-described "alt-right" leader Richard Spencer. Students are already planning a counterprotest.

A federal judge has ordered Baylor University to hand over recordings, notes and other key documents from its infamous Pepper Hamilton investigation, which found that Baylor repeatedly mishandled allegations of sexual assault.

There's not much room in federal law for the U.S. Department of Justice to target Texas schools for the use of affirmative action, but a lawsuit pending in state court could spell trouble for race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas at Austin.

Leaders at many of the state's top public universities have ordered across-the-board budget cuts for the next school year, even though they avoided their worst funding fears during the 2017 legislative session.

A federal judge said that three professors suing the state to block campus carry didn't present any "concrete evidence to substantiate their fears" that the law would have a chilling effect on free speech.